We examine the spectral dependence in the visible frequency range of the polarization rotation of two-dimensional gratings consisting of chiral gold nanostructures with subwavelength features. The gratings, which do not diffract, are shown to exhibit giant specific rotation (approximately 10(4) degrees/mm) of polarization in direct transmission at normal incidence. The rotation is the same for light incident on the front and back sides of the sample. Such reciprocity indicates three dimensionality of the structure arising from the asymmetry of light-plasmon coupling at the air-metal and substrate-metal interfaces. The structures thus enable polarization control with quasi-two-dimensional planar objects. However, in contradiction with recently suggested interpretation of experiments on larger scale but otherwise similar structures, the observed polarization phenomena violate neither reciprocity nor time-reversal symmetry.

A new class of solutions to the scalar wave equation was introduced recently that represents transversely localized but totally nondiffracting fields. We show by the method of stationary phase that any of these wave fields can be realized approximately with a laser and a single computer-generated hologram. We briefly discuss various techniques for coding and fabrication of the required hologram and the associated diffraction efficiencies. Using both binary-amplitude and four-level phase holograms, we demonstrate experimentally the formation of arbitrary-order Bessel beams and rotationally nonsymmetric beams.

We demonstrate that second-harmonic generation (SHG) from arrays of non-centrosymmetric T-shaped gold nanodimers with a nanogap arises from asymmetry in the local fundamental field distribution and is not related strictly to nanogap size. Calculations show that the local field contains orthogonal polarization components not present in the exciting field, which yield the dominant SHG response. The strongest SHG responses occur through the local surface susceptibility of the particles for a fundamental field distributed asymmetrically at the particle perimeters. Weak responses result from more symmetric distributions despite high field enhancement in the nanogap. Nearly constant field enhancement persists for relatively large nanogap sizes.

We provide experimental evidence of higher multipole (magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole) radiation in second-harmonic (SH) generation from arrays of metal nanoparticles. Fundamental differences in the radiative properties of electric dipoles and higher multipoles yield opposite interference effects observed in the SH intensities measured in the reflected and transmitted directions. These interference effects clearly depend on the polarization of the fundamental field, directly indicating the importance of multipole effects in the nonlinear response. We estimate that higher multipoles contribute up to 20% of the total emitted SH field amplitude for certain polarization configurations.

We deduce and study an analytical expression for Fresnel diffraction of a plane wave by a spiral phase plate (SPP) that imparts an arbitrary-order phase singularity on the light field. Estimates for the optical vortex radius that depends on the singularity's integer order n (also termed topological charge, or order of the dislocation) have been derived. The near-zero vortex intensity is shown to be proportional to rho2n, where p is the radial coordinate. Also, an analytical expression for Fresnel diffraction of the Gaussian beam by a SPP with nth-order singularity is analyzed. The far-field intensity distribution is derived. The radius of maximal intensity is shown to depend on the singularity number. The behavior of the Gaussian beam intensity after a SPP with second-order singularity (n = 2) is studied in more detail. The parameters of the light beams generated numerically with the Fresnel transform and via analytical formulas are in good agreement. In addition, the light fields with first- and second-order singularities were generated by a 32-level SPP fabricated on the resist by use of the electron-beam lithography technique.